Thomas Haywood Jr
9th March 20111) Where do you live?
I currently live in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
2) What bands have you played in? What albums do you appear on?
Abigail Williams: In the Shadows of a Thousand Suns (Candlelight Records)
Born of Fire: N/A (unreleased/ Roadrunner Records)
System Divide (co-wrote a couple songs on the Collapse EP which also appeared on the Conscious Sedation LP – Metal Blade Records)
Aborted (co-wrote a couple songs on Coronary Reconstruction EP which also appeared on the Global Flatline LP – Century Media Records)
Bro Jovi- Songs to Crush Beers to Vol. I (self released – available on iTunes/Spotify)
3) What were your reasons for leaving music?
When I finally started touring I was already 27 yrs old, was married, and had a child on the way. You don’t make very much money on tour unless you’re really selling a ton of merch every night and have nice guarantees. Two years in it got to be too much – I left right before our co-headling tour with Goatwhore which went from being booked like 46 dates to 72 or more. That was the deciding factor for me – how was I going to be away from my family for nearly 3 months and barely bring home a penny.
4) What do you do for a living now?
Well, after touring I worked at a local Cleveland venue called Peabody’s Downunder as a live sound engineer while always teaching private music lessons a couple days a week. That lasted a couple years and then I started working for a restaurant that has become well recognized nationwide here in the states called, Melt Bar and Grilled. I am currently the Bar Manager at one of their locations. I know our own Frank Rini is a giant foodie so I’m gonna try to persuade him to come visit me for some big eats!
5) What hobbies do you have?
My favorite is spending time with family – my kids and my girlfriend of 2+ yrs. I love going hiking, working out (body weight/full body), relaxing with good friends, indulging in good food, beer, and wine. I also have a slew of projects right now – one is a grind band called TO DUST with the vocalist of SEVERED REMAINS that will be finishing up our EP in April. My own project called HUMANITY IS CANCER with a ton of guests/friends I made in the industry. VINTAGE WARLORDS, a doom/old school death metal project with a good friend. I also love writing for this site and hope to continue to branch out and spread the good (metal) word!
6)What genres of metal and other music styles do you like?
I love Death/Thrash/Black/Doom/Stoner/Experimental..I mean whatever as long as it speaks to me. I also have a love for electronic music (incl. goth, industrial, EBM, minimalist), post punk, old school hip hop (A Tribe Called Quest being the all-time fav), Motown, Soul (Neo-Soul), true Rhythm & Blues, Delta Blues, Jazz, Latin..I could go on for days.
7) Tell us one of the weirdest experiences band moments you’ve had.
I don’t know if it’s the weirdest..there’s plenty of those, but one crazy thing was when I was with Abigail Williams and we just released our In the Shadow.. record. Pop singer Demi Lovato was on the Jimmy Fallon show and mentioned us as one of her favorite bands. She also mentioned us in some MTV and Disney interviews. That tripped me out.
